On Friday the United States and Canada will face off in the semifinal of the Olympic Men's Hockey tournament. The game represents a rematch of the final in the 2010 Olympics.

Heading into the tournament, many felt that the Canadians were the runaway favorites. The team, which was packed with such forwards as Sidney Crosby, Corey Perry, John Tavares, Ryan Getzlaf, Rick Nash, Jonathan Toews, Patrick Sharp, and Matt Duchene among others, was seen as completely unstoppable on its way to defending its championship.

Meanwhile, the Americans were seen as a big question mark. While the team was filled with a number of top stars, many questioned whether the team's placement in a group with Russia would be the team's undoing. There were also questions about the team's defense and whether the offensive stars would produce.

After four games for each team, the roles have reversed. The Americans have exceeded all expectations while Canada... is far from what many expected.

Let's start with the Canadians. The team struggled in its opener against Norway and failed to score in the first period. A 3-1 win eventually came to pass, but many questioned whether Canada had let a chance at a big scoreline go. The team answered the doubters in a 6-0 win over Austria before defeating a great Finnish side 2-1 in the decisive third group game.

The quarterfinal was a date with a surprising Latvian side that was not supposed to get past Switzerland in the first playoff. But the Latvians proved to be more than Switzerland could handle and they nearly made Canada suffer the same fate. Canada scored the opener but relinquished the lead just two minutes and four seconds later. The team managed to score the winner off a Shea Weber goal late in the third period.

What has been rather shocking about Canada is that the scoring has not been from its top players. Defenders Shea Weber and Drew Doughty lead the team in points while such NHL superstars like Sidney Crosby and John Tavares have failed to score a single goal; Tavares was injured in the Latvia game and failed to register a single point. It should be noted that Tavares was one of Canada's top forwards throughout his time with the team. Meanwhile, Crosby, often called the greatest player in the world, has been anything but that. He has two assists but has failed to assert himself and often looks lost on the larger ice surface. Canada's decision to bring along his favored Penguins teammate Chris Kunitz has backfired tremendously as Kunitz has been arguably the worst Canadian forward in the tournament.

Defense and goaltending have not been a major issue for Canada thus far but they have rarely been tested in their first four games.

That will undoubtedly change on Friday. The Americans have the best offense in the entire tournament and have scored 20 goals in just four games; the team destroyed Slovakia 7-1 in their opener and has never looked back. More importantly, the team is getting scoring from a wide variety of sources. The recent 5-2 win over featured five different goal scorers, two of which were scoring their first goals of the tournament. One of the goal scorers, Phil Kessel, scored his fifth goal of the tournament.

Both teams rely on speed, but the Americans have looked more comfortable on the larger ice surface in this tournament. It will be interesting to see which side ultimately dominates possession and wins the speed battle.

Can Canada defeat the United States?